New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) responded to Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s (D-Ill.) claim that policies “too far to the left” can’t win in Midwestern states.
“With respect to the Senator, strong, clear advocacy for working class Americans isn’t just for the Bronx,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet on Sunday.
{mosads}Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist and former organizer for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign two years ago, pointed out that policies to the left of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won in several Midwestern states.
Sanders won the Democratic primary in Michigan, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Indiana in 2016.
“We then lost several of those states in the general,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “What’s the plan to prevent a repeat?”
Ocasio-Cortez was responding to an interview Duckworth gave to CNN’s Jake Tapper in which she said a political platform that’s “too far to the left” could ostracize voters in the Midwest.
The Hill has reached out to Duckworth’s office for comment.
Duckworth appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday to discuss Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning victory over incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley (D) in the primary for New York’s 14th Congressional District.
Tapper asked Duckworth if the young candidate represents the future of the Democratic Party.
“I think it’s the future of the party in the Bronx, where she is,” Duckworth said.
“I think that you can’t win the White House without the Midwest and I don’t think you can go too far to the left and still win the Midwest,” Duckworth said during the interview.
Duckworth’s comments echoed those of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who told people not to get “carried away” with Ocasio-Cortez’s platform.
“They made a choice in one district,” Pelosi said. “So let’s not get yourself carried away as an expert on demographics and the rest of that within the caucus or outside the caucus.”
Ocasio-Cortez pushed back on Pelosi’s comments on Wednesday, saying the Democratic Party is in the middle of a movement.